Page 34 of Pax

“Your niece? Your niece drives a boat?” asked Pax.

“Hey, who the fuck are you, the cops or something?” he snapped. “I’m busy here working, if you can’t tell.”

“I can’t tell, and would it matter if I were the cops? I mean, you’re holding a boat key, and you’re a boat dealer, but what I find really odd is the Saint medal that protects children. You don’t appear to be a child. I mean, you’re definitely small, like a child.”

The man was seething with anger, wanting to lash out, but knew that customers and his bosses were watching.

“Look, I don’t know what your deal is, but you’re at my place of work harassing me.”

“Oh, man,” laughed Pax. “We haven’t even begun to harass you yet. That will come later. Right now, you’re going to take a little walk with us and tell us where you got the medal.”

“Fuck you,” he said in a low, hushed voice. “You try to touch me, and I’ll scream for security.”

“You really are stupid, aren’t you?” smirked Patrick. He turned, waving his arm toward the group of men behind him. “It’s not just us. We’ve got our own security team. You’re going to do this nicely, or I’m going to let your boss know what a little piss-ant you really are.”

They could tell he was rethinking the entire thing, trying to figure out how he could make his escape work.

“Marvin? Everything okay?” asked an older man.

“Oh, yeah,” he nodded, seeing the man.

“Marvin was just going to take us somewhere private to talk about payment options,” said Pax.

“Wonderful! Well, go ahead. I’ll cover for you.” Christopher smiled at him.

“Yeah, Marvin. Let’s go.”

CHAPTER TWENTY

Marvin took a seat at a round lunch table at the back of the convention center while the men pulled chairs up, blocking him into the table. The women sat at the table next to him, and he just glared at them.

“Now, Marvin,” smiled Cam. “You keep looking at my friends that way, and I’m going to have to take it as an offense.”

“What do you want?”

“I want to know where you got the medal,” said Luke.

“Why the fuck is this a problem for you guys? Are you anti-religion or something?”

“Don’t screw with me,” said Eric, gripping his knee beneath the table. “I can debilitate you in about two seconds. Where the fuck did you get the medal?”

“A girl, okay! I got it from a girl.”

“What girl? Where?” asked Pax.

“In Mexico. We delivered a couple of boats down there, and she was getting on one of them.”

“Getting on one of them?” repeated Hex.

“Yes, boarding it. She handed me the medal and said she didn’t need it anymore.” The men all stared at one another and back at him. “What? It’s the truth. We delivered the boats, there were some people that were getting ready to take a ride, and she was one of them. She was good-looking, pretty, and young. I helped her onboard, and she handed me the medal. That’s all. I swear.”

“Why did you have to help her onboard?” asked Luke.

“She was struggling with the steps and the boat moving. Like her legs weren’t working right or something. I’d guess she was never on a boat before.”

“And the fact that the boat sank with illegal immigrants chained to it, killing everyone on board, has nothing to do with you, right?” said Luke.

“What? Listen, I dropped the boat off. That’s it.”

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